


Z100

by zaynbabwe



Category: None - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Dystopia, Female-Centric, Feminist Themes, Pandemics, United States
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-21 12:15:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3691893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zaynbabwe/pseuds/zaynbabwe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keira, a journalist tasked with writing the newest addition of a U.S. history textbook, explores how a country built upon a patriarchy survives a pandemic that wipes out all males and male tissue on the planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Z100

**Author's Note:**

> This was for an English assignment, but if enough people read this then I can write more. Basically our assignment was to create our own dystopia and the minimum was one page, but I got super into it and wrote 9 pages. Also, I'm super bad at coming up with names by myself so Keira is Keira Knightley and Tom Franco is James Franco's other brother and Orlando Vanwyngarden is a mix of the lead singer of MGMT and Orlando Bloom. Plus there's a whole bunch of One Direction references. Sorry bout that friends! Anyways, enjoy my English assignment!

Keira had been assigned the task of writing the history of the United States of America. She loved writing; before the incident happened, she used to write poems and short stories, usually depicting a cliché romance that she never had the pleasure of actually attaining. However, there was no time for creative writing now. There was only time for science and research and books that had strictly intellectual purposes.

Keira decided that she did not need to explain the arrival of Columbus or the detachment of the colonies from Great Britain. All those events seemed meaningless in the context of the current situation of the country. So, Keira started with the history she knew very well, because she had lived through it.

_Shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, 2015, a man by the name of George Tomlinson boarded a flight to his hometown of Doncaster, England, from Sierra Leone where he was volunteering at a clinic. Tomlinson travelled in four different planes, stopping in a total of three cities across Europe before he reached his destination. Two weeks later, Tomlinson died from Ebola at the Doncaster Royal Infirmary, an institution to which he had only been admitted two hours prior to his death. British officials attempted to retrace all his actions that preceded his spontaneous death from the disease, but the task was proven futile when the British government, aided by the Center for Disease Control in the United States, discovered Tomlinson had come into close contact with over three thousand people between the day he left North Africa to the time he was quarantined at the hospital in Doncaster. Soon after, cases of Ebola emerged in Spain, France, Italy and Belgium, but the range of contact of these patients was also too widespread to be able to effectively stop the spread of the disease. By the end of February, one hundred and thirty-seven people had died from Ebola in England alone._

_A large-scale panic arose in California as twelve people died in the St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles. One of the tending doctors died soon after a trip to Portland to visit his mother. By April 5th, 2015, the entire city of Los Angeles was under quarantine; the 485 lives lost in the Great Riot of LA was incomparable to the approximated 10,000 who had already succumbed to the disease. The seclusion of the large city did not prevent the disease from spreading to 42 of the states, where small-scale riots devolved into anarchy overnight._

As the body count grew, the Center for Disease Control’s desperation grew more apparent. A man by the name of Dr. Orlando Vanwyngarden produced a vaccine popularly known as the Z100. The trials looked promising; patients Elizabeth Edwards and Leanne Gaskell quickly recovered from the Ebola disease, leading the CDC to call for a mass-production of the drug. However, based on their projections, CDC leader Tom Franco concluded that individual vaccinations would take six to eight weeks, a time period in which millions more Americans would capitulate to disease and riots. So, ready with a plan approved by President Biden himself, Franco contaminated the water system with the Z100 drug on May 6th, 2015.

"The effects were immediate; all patients with Ebola miraculously recovered from the fatal disease within 12 hours, and not a single U.S. citizen contracted the virus within twenty-four hours after the dispersion of the Z100 drug. The disaster seemed to be coming to a conclusion, when Franco himself fell ill with a new disease…"

Keira’s thoughts were interrupted by Louise calling her name from the first floor of their apartment.

“What do you need? I was in the middle of writing my new history article that will be added to the U.S. history curriculum,” Keira inquired as she descended the stairs.

“I’m not sure why you even bother with that, considering we’re all gonna be dead in like eighty years,” Louise retorted. She had always been the pessimist in the family. “Anyways, I just wanted to tell you that it’s Harvesting Day and our appointment is in an hour.”

Keira groaned. She despised Harvesting Day. But at least it was only once a month Keira concluded, trying to mentally prepare herself for the unpleasant experience that awaited her.

When the two sisters arrived at the Sears Tower, which was now converted into one hundred and eight floors of medical research labs, they were ushered into a room filled with uninviting medical equipment. Their doctor, Dr. Burnham, was standing over a wash basin, attempting to sterilize a massive needle that she had evidently used on her previous patient.

“How are you adjusting to your new medication?” Dr. Burnham abruptly asked Keira.

“Alright… I just don’t get why we’re taking them though? I know that it’s crucial that we harvest all of our ova for scientific testing, but I just don’t understand why we have to regulate everyone’s periods?”

“Keira, you have to understand that Harvest Day is the only reason we’re optimistic about the survival of the human race. To optimize the effectiveness of our research, we spend one day per month collecting eggs from you, and when it’s not Harvest Day, we test the eggs. It’s simply more efficient to keep you all on the same cycle.”

Keira blushed and managed to mutter, “okay” as Dr. Burnham prepared for the procedure.

 

After Dr. Burnham finished the operation, Keira finally decided to ask the thing that was on her mind since she first stepped into the building.

“You know, Dr. Burnham, I’ve been assigned to write the history of the United States after 2014, but I don’t really know all of the scientific stuff. That’s probably why I was never assigned a lab job, because I never understood biology. Anyways, I was just wondering if I could ask you some questions so I could make my article really accurate.”

“I’d love to, Keira! How about during my lunch break?” Dr. Burnham eagerly questioned.

“Yes, thank you, that’d be lovely.”

 

Keira grimaced as she looked down at the food that the cafeteria offered. Most of the food was made out of tofu, but they also had various vegetables available that were grown a little south of Chicago. I miss steak, Keira thought, and chicken nuggets and pepperoni pizza. However, she immediately reminded herself that cows were nearly extinct, and chicken had been gone for a couple months now, so there really was no use in pining over something she would never have again.

Dr. Burnham was already awaiting Keira’s company at a nearby table so she quickly hastened towards it, trying to forget the taste of steak that lingered in her mouth.

“So, what do you need to know?” Dr. Burnham inquired after swallowing her mouthful of brussel sprouts.

“Well, I obviously know what the Z100 drug did, but I was just wondering how it worked.”

“You’ve got to understand that the Z100 never had proper testing that other CDC approved drugs would’ve had. When Franco died after taking the vaccine, the CDC discovered that Z100 attacks the chromosomes of an organism, specifically the Y chromosomes. So basically, any male organism or tissue immediately died when exposed to the drug. When they tested Z100 on two women, they assumed it would work on men as well. So of course, after their discovery from Franco’s death, who had been one of the first people exposed to Z100, they immediately recalled the production of the drug. But it was too late; millions of men had already been exposed to Z100 through the water system. Within two days of Franco’s death, two-thirds of the U.S. male population had died. We’re still unsure of how, but the Z100 toxin had become airborne by the time the week was out, and males in Europe, Africa, Asia - everywhere - were dropping like flies.”

“So that’s how the animals got infected too?” Keira questioned while furiously attempting to scrawl down every word Dr. Burnham said.

“Precisely. The land animals were infected pretty quickly, but sea animals finally got the toxin about two months after the rest of us did. I used to live in Florida then. I could just remember the day that thousands of fish washed up on the beach overnight…at least they masked the smell of burning flesh from the mass grave near my house…” Her voice trailed off, lost in the traumatizing images of a two women pushing the decaying corpse of her husband into a crowded garbage truck.

“Thank you for your time, Dr. Burnham. Sorry to bring back any disagreeable memories, but you were immensely helpful.”

“No, no it’s fine. It’s good to remember. Because in 80 years there will be no one left to remember.”

So much for being optimistic about the survival of the human race, Keira was tempted to say, but she decided against it.

 

When Keira returned to her apartment, she was met with an envelope taped to her doorway, adorned with multiple stamps reading “CONFIDENTIAL” in bolded, red letters. She hesitantly ripped the sealed receptacle to find a short note signed by the Director of Human Morale, Jennifer Watson.

_Dearest Keira, I’ve become aware that the task center has chosen you with the burdensome project of writing the history of the United States when the incident happened. Based on your record, I know that you are more than capable of completing this task in a conscientious manner. I just thought you may need reminding that our social body is quite delicate because we have not found a solution to our reproduction crisis. Based on this fact, you must choose what to include in your history most judiciously, and it must be written with the optimism that we endorse here at the Department of Human Morale. My utmost concern is not losing any more of the declining number of humans than necessary. Hope is the most important ingredient of establishing a stable society. Have a wonderful day, Jennifer Watson._

Keira had received dozens of these same letters ever since her writings began to be published. This one, however, instilled an immeasurable amount of fear within Keira. Never had the Department of Human Morale sounded so desperate; the implications of the words “not losing any more of the declining number of humans than necessary” were clear, but Keira could not help but wonder if there had been a recent incident that caused the Director to write those words. She knew that the government only released positive news instead of what the scientists habitually talked about, like their passive comments about how dolphins went extinct today, or how the number of elephants was dwindling. But Keira also knew that president Clinton was suppressing information for the benefit of the human race, so she resolutely chose to heed the advice.

As she sat down to continue her article, Keira resolved to sort through her sources and dispose of any that might not be the propaganda that the Department of Human Morale sanctioned. Her eyes first passed over an article titled _Did Germany Win the Third World War_? Keira recalled that she had saved this article from an Australian newspaper, back when internet usage was unfettered. She opened the composition and began reading:

_Many journalists are calling the Z100 disease the “Third World War,” even though it was not a war, necessarily. But that brings one to question: who won this war? Who conquered the other players on the battlefield? After extensive research, I have concluded that Germany came out of the initial battle victorious, even though the entire human race is doomed to die in the next 100 years, whether you be from Germany or North Korea. Germany championed a stable society from the moment the first man died within their borders. Most of this success directly correlates to the fact that their president, Angela Merkel, was in fact a woman, and was not awaiting her death like most of the world’s leaders. She immediately took action in calming the public and replacing the dying breed of men with capable women, to sustain a stable society despite losing half of the population. It is a well-known fact that women were excluded from participation in politics in various countries, but it was interesting to watch countries like the United States of America, who was a self-proclaimed “land of the free,” yet discreetly discouraged women from roles as engineers and doctors and other necessary parts of a modern, functioning society. The United States government immediately collapsed despite the fact there was a startling minority of 18% female in the House of Representatives and a shocking three women on the Supreme Court (but remember, there had collectively only been four women on the Supreme Court before 2014. I wouldn’t be surprised if they still didn’t have a female majority now). Luckily enough, ex-President William Clinton’s wife was even more qualified than he was to lead the United States through this disaster, but I was still dismayed by the fact that Hilary Clinton was the only clear choice for the vacant presidency. In Germany, not only is Merkel a prominent leader, but if she was somehow killed during the ebola epidemic or trampled during a riot, many women could have been considered for the job, including Gerda Hasselfeldt, Hannelore Roedel, Ulrike Poppe and Johanna Grund, to name a few. I’m certainly not saying that the twenty senators in the United States would not be apparent choices as the executive of the United States, but most people, before the Z100 drug, would’ve considered fifty men for the job before even thinking of the possibility of a woman leading them through this crisis._

_Another important component of Germany’s triumphant victory over the United States was the fact that Germany had a favorable ratio of women to men engineers, unlike the United States whose engineering work force is only 5% females. In the innovation department, the U.S. could not compete with countries that had a suitable female workforce._

_One could argue that the most important job in our new world is the role of the biological researcher, which is another statistic that Germany championed. The U.S., externally, may have seemed like they had the upper hand, due to the fact that 58% of biology degrees were awarded to women. Yet, women, on average, had a far more difficult time in the pursuit of lab jobs, and generally were paid less than men when they could find work. My only question is: do the dead corpses of your co-workers still get more benefits than you do now? It seems only fair._

Keira put down the article and mulled over the possibility of putting any of that information in her history. That would definitely not help morale, Keira thought, while regretfully placing the Australian woman’s work in the recycling bin. However, the last line of the article resonated through her mind, while her eyes grazed over an article titled _Natasha Malik, the New Star of the Chicago Bears?_

Maybe in eighty years, when the last human dies, men and women will finally be on the same playing field, Keira gravely thought. The patter of her fingers on the keys of her computer reverberated around her room as she filled up her United States history article with optimistic projections of the future that would earn the Department of Human Morale’s approval.


End file.
